This story is based on characters created by Anthony E. Zuiker for the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Remuneration, Part 23
by Cheers
"Let me see if I understand this," Sheriff Mobley intoned, a little more than upset. He had been called in the middle of the night at Stokes' insistence. Currently sitting in the conference room at the Crime Lab, the Sheriff was joined by Carl Paulson, Conrad Ecklie, and Nick Stokes. It was the young CSI who was making his case for Grissom's innocence. "The trash bag manufacturer supplied you with the composition?"
Nick shook his head. "Not quite," he explained. "The quality assurance inspector for the manufacturing company explained the manufacturing process. You see, each bag made will have several defining characteristics that help to identify it from other bags made by the same manufacturer. Since the bags are mass-produced, each bag won't be entirely unique. But certain chemical and physical attributes can distinguish one bag from another."
Mobley still wasn't sure he was getting it. "Defining characteristics."
"Yeah," Nick continued, obviously excited by the information he believed was exculpatory. "The garbage bags are made from a liquid plastic mix that is blown into tubes, cooled, folded, and then cut. Each batch of the plastic mixture used to make the bags will be unique since no two mixtures will contain the same trace element levels. See, the liquid plastic batches are a mixture of recycled and new plastic elements. The recycled bits of plastic are from imperfect prior batch garbage bags that fail quality inspection. They are shredded and added to the new mixture. These bags are either white or dark and may or may not have those yellow ties you use to close the bag."
Brian Mobley nodded. This he was able to follow.
Nick could see that he was making sense. "The white plastic is rich in titanium dioxide and those yellow plastic ties are very high in iron. Depending on the amount of recycled material used in each batch of plastic mixture, the levels will vary. Each batch will have unique levels of titanium dioxide and iron. Using high intensity X-ray florescent spectrometry, we can measure these levels in a given sample."
"Like the trash bags found in Grissom's possession and the one the victim was found in," the Sheriff said.
"Exactly," Nick replied.
Mobley read the reports he had been given again. "Then these reports tell us that the garbage bag used to dump the body of that little girl did not come from the box of bags taken from Grissom."
"That's right," Nick said.
"But it doesn't mean that Grissom didn't kill her." This last came from Carl Paulson. They all looked at him. "Grissom is a criminal investigator. He knows how to get rid of evidence. What's to say that he didn't just toss the box that the victim's bag came from?"
Choosing to ignore the detective for the moment, Nick turned back to the Sheriff. "We also found an abundance of animal hairs on the victim and on her clothing. Dog hairs to be more precise. The victim's grandmother doesn't own a dog. Neither does Grissom. Somehow, between the time she left her grandmother's home and when she was killed, she came into very close contact with a dog or with an environment filled with dog hair. None of the evidence taken from Grissom's Tahoe or his home contained animal hair."
"He took her to someplace that a dog had been," Paulson insisted.
Nick was losing his temper now. "The last time I checked, a person was innocent until proven guilty," he said hotly. "You don't force the evidence to fit a theory. You build a theory from the evidence you have."
"And what does the evidence suggest to you, Mr. Stokes?" Sheriff Mobley asked the CSI, trying to diffuse the rapidly rising tempers.
Giving the detective a stabbing glare, Nick paused before answering the Sheriff's question. "That the perpetrator probably owns a dog. He may have even used the dog as a lure to get the victim to go with him without raising an alarm."
At this, Mobley looked expectantly at the CSI supervisor. Conrad Ecklie had remained silent throughout this meeting - probably because he knew that Stokes was correct about Grissom's innocence.
"Ecklie?" Mobley asked. "Do you agree?"
Conrad had to admit that Nick's hunch about the killer of Shelly Danbridge made sense. He wasn't pleased about it, though. Still, the Sheriff was going to be more interested in catching the perpetrator than in proving Grissom's guilt or innocence. It would serve Conrad better if he steered the investigation toward finding the actual killer. Grissom hadn't done it and that meant that someone else did. That someone else was still out there. With obvious reservations, he nodded and said, "It makes sense. Everything we know about sexual predators suggests that this is a likely scenario."
Carl Paulson stared at the CSI supervisor. "But what about the time frame? Grissom can't account for the two hours before the victim disappeared."
Nick opened his mouth to reply but was beaten to the punch by the Sheriff.
"If someone were to ask me to account for time I spent home alone," Mobley told the detective, "I wouldn't be able to provide an alibi any more than Mr. Grissom could. He was most likely right where he said he was. And, until you can show me any other corroborating evidence to the contrary, I'm willing to accept his account as gospel."
Catherine, Sara, and Warrick were gathered on one side of the autopsy table listening to Doc Robbins. The John Doe from the storage unit lay on the table in front of them.
"He suffered a single gunshot to the head," the coroner informed them. "The bullet entered through the right orbit. The shot was made at almost point-blank range. There's no exit wound."
"No exit wound?" Sara asked.
"So we can retrieve the bullet," Catherine suggested.
Turning, Doc Robbins moved toward the radiograph viewing panel on the wall near the foot of the autopsy table. They followed. Several x-ray images of the victim's skull were illuminated. He pointed to a small area of hyperdensity that was obviously a piece of metal. "There's a large bullet fragment lodged in the occipital region. I'll send it to Bobby in Ballistics as soon as I recover it."
"Any other injuries?" Warrick wanted to know.
"None that are obvious," Robbins said. "I'll send tissue samples out for toxicology. Right now it's looking like a straightforward death-by-gunshot."
"Do you have any idea about time of death?" Catherine asked.
Robbins moved back to the autopsy table and looked at the body again. "The amount of desiccation makes it hard to establish. Right now I'd say anywhere between ten days to three weeks. Grissom should be able to give you a more accurate estimate."
Of course, that would depend on Grissom still having a job, Robbins thought. He felt another twinge of anger at what was happening to his friend and colleague. By the looks he received from the three CSIs at the mention of their boss's name, Robbins knew he wasn't alone.
